think

I think men, growing up, you have to go through some form of hardship. You've got to harden the metal.

There are only two kinds of men: the righteous who think they are sinners and the sinners who think they are righteous.

The less men think, the more they talk.

Envy blinds men and makes it impossible for them to think clearly.

I think that one possible definition of our modern culture is that it is one in which nine-tenths of our intellectuals can't read any poetry.

The first function of poetry is to tell the truth, to learn how to do that, to find out what you really feel and what you really think.

There is the view that poetry should improve your life. I think people confuse it with the Salvation Army.

I think poetry should be read very much like prose, except that the line breaks should be acknowledged somehow.

The biggest problem is people are afraid of poetry, think they can't understand it or that it will be boring.

I think poetry was always where I went to deal with my deepest feelings.

I know I'm not a wordsmith. And I don't write poetry. Sometimes I think I should, because it's really helpful. But I always wanted to write novels.

I learned to impersonate the kind of person that talks about poetry. It comes from teaching, I think.

I've always loved the poetry in 'Pale Fire.' I think it's wonderful.

I think people turn to poetry more often than they think they do, or encounter it in more ways than they think that they do. I think we forget the places that we encounter it, say, in songs or in other little bits and pieces of things that we may have remembered from childhood.

I think one of the things that people tend to forget is that poets do write out of life. It isn't some set piece that then gets put up on the shelf, but that the impetus, the real instigation for poetry is everything that's happening around us.

Among the American contemporaries I read with most enjoyment are several North Carolinians. I think the best poetry being written these days is being written by Southerners.

That's all there was in our house: poetry and choir rehearsal and duets and so forth I listened to Dad and Mother discuss things about poetry and delivery and voice and diction - I don't think anyone could know how much it really means.

I think that it's more likely that in my 60s and 70s I will be writing poetry rather than fiction.